Inferno
by dog-tooth
Summary: It all started with a fire, an explosion of chaos which led to Anna Winters eventually meeting a mysterious, scarred man. Pre TDK.


**Chapter 1**

**It all started with a fire, an explosion of chaos which led to Anna Winters eventually meeting a mysterious, scarred man. Pre TDK. **

The acrid smell of smoke drifted throughout the room. It burned Anna's nostrils, burned her throat as she sucked in shaky breaths.

"Mum!" she screamed. "Mum, where are you?"

More smoke worked its way into her mouth until all she could taste was smoky heat working its way across her lips, down her throat and into her lungs. She was suffocating, slowly suffocating to the point that it took all of her strength to suck in a breath and let it out again.

Her fingers scrabbled desperately at the door, blistering as they pressed against the sizzling metal of the door handle. The scream of pain took all of the strength out of her and she collapsed to the floor, pressing her burnt fingers to her chest as she struggled to breathe. This was the end. She could feel it. Her chest heaved up and down, her fingers curling into fists, and she could feel it. That darkness creeping at the edges of her vision, making everything blur in and out of recognition. She was going to die right there in that grotty hotel.

And then she saw him. He was a dark hulking figure against the flickering orange of the flames but she'd almost missed him. He walked towards her with slow steady steps, every footfall sending waves of vibrations across the floor. The closer he got the larger he seemed, until he blocked all of the flames from her sight and all she could see was the blackness of _him_.

She wanted to see his eyes. Her breath was coming out in harsh, short gasps but all she wanted to do was see his eyes. Because she was still convinced she was going to die here. Even through the darkness of him she could see death creeping into her vision from every angle. She wanted to know that this figure standing in front of her was a man, not some mysterious masked figure that everyone talked about.

He leant forwards, obscuring her entire vision for a moment, before she found herself in his arms. His armour was hard against her body but it was cool, refreshing against her hot skin. She pressed her blistered fingers against it and the relief was wonderful. But she still couldn't breathe.

They were in front of the window now. She wasn't sure how they'd gotten there but she was aware that the window had been smashed open somehow, either by the flames or him.

"Hold on." She couldn't tell whether it was the smoke that made his voice that gravelly or whether it was always like that. She wouldn't know till weeks later.

But suddenly she didn't have time to think about that. He threw himself forward, his arms wrapped so tightly around her form that she imagined there would be bruises. For a few seconds the world tumbled towards them, the wind whipping at her face till she was certain she'd never be able to breathe properly again. And then they landed. Heavily. Black fabric billowed around her before disappearing out of sight.

Everything happened at once. She was no longer in his arms but in the arms of a fireman, his soot covered face looking down at her with concern. Sirens and lights flashed around her, faces constantly coming in and out of view, their mouths moving rapidly as they all surrounded her. It was so different from the blackness of him that she closed her eyes, wanting the darkness back.

'Go away' she wanted to mutter, but her mouth wasn't working properly. She couldn't breathe, let alone speak.

"She can't breathe," someone shouted from nearby.

A mask was pressed over her mouth and she sucked in a tentative breath. Her chest still ached and burned but the breath came relatively easy. She took several more, tears building up in her eyes at how wonderful it felt.

"Where's my mother?" she gasped, regretting the words the moment her throat contracted painfully.

Nobody took any notice of her as they started to move towards the ambulance parked away from the hotel. Still in the arms of the fireman she looked around frantically, her head spinning wildly left and right as she tried to catch a glimpse of her mother. There were crowds of people surrounding the hotel but they were all too far away, stuck behind yellow police tape. Her mother had been in the hotel room when she'd gone to sleep, so where was she now?

She was distracted suddenly as she gazed up at the hotel. The whole building was a mass of burning, collapsing rubble. The windows of all the buildings at the top had been blown out by the force of the fire, the glass now scattered across the pavement below. Paintwork peeled away from the outside, revealing the charred brickwork underneath. And still the flames continued to burn, flickering at the night sky, causing smoky tendrils to unfurl across the city.

If she hadn't been looking up at that moment she would have been caught completely unaware when danger came hurtling towards them. Even though she saw it happen she still had little time to react before the top floor of the hotel exploded in a fireball of brick and searing heat.

The man holding her started to run towards the crowds of people being held back by the tape but he was too slow. There was a horrible wet sound before she found herself hurtling backwards.

A screeching of metal echoed across the street before with a loud boom another explosion rippled throughout the building. She felt searing heat against her face before the blackness engulfed her again.

Everything was deadly quiet. For a few terrible moments she thought that she was finally dead. And then the screaming started. It was everywhere, piercing her eardrums with its shrillness and desperation. What was happening? She couldn't see through the darkness that surrounded her.

The light hit her face suddenly, causing her to blink several times before she could focus. The mask was still around her mouth and she slipped it off, noting that the plastic had shattered. Some of it stuck to her skin. When she tried to pull it away she felt something warm and wet against her blistered fingers. Blood.

Before she could look around to see what happened she saw him. He was a black mass against the pavement as he lay next to her, his face mere inches away from hers. He'd saved her again. She stared at him, blinking slowly so that she could focus on his face. This close to him she could finally see his eyes. They were a warm brown as they narrowed at her. He was human.

She tried to say something. She wanted to thank him or ask him who he was or just say his name, but before she could she lost consciousness, the real darkness finally taking her under.

**A/N: I know it's short but the chapters hereafter will be a lot longer. Let me know what you think. **


End file.
